Why Should this Merely Happen to Jacob?
by Renata 62
Summary: For the Phases of Life contest on Free Writers and Readers: Leah is heartbroken after Sam imprints on Emily. Then a chocolate-skinned stranger catches her attention. Leah soon learns that Jacob isn't the only wolf who can imprint on a hybrid. canon


This story was an entry to the Phases of Life contest of the group Free Writers One-Shot Contests on Free Writers and Readers.

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THEME: Phases of Life

STORY TITLE: Why Should This Merely Happen to Jacob

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_SUMMARY:_

_Leah is heartbroken after Sam imprints on Emily. Then a chocolate-skinned stranger catches her attention. Leah soon learns that Jacob isn't the only wolf who can imprint on a hybrid. __(canon)_

_DISCLAIMER:_

_The stories and characters of the Twilight Saga are the property of Stephenie Meyer. I only borrowed some of her characters to play with them._

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**Why Should this Merely Happen to Jacob?**

She thought, she never could relate to the leech-lover turned vampire, but here she was, stomach round with not only one, but two babies from a not so human lover, waiting for the time to be delivered of the little monsters she loved already. How ironical Fate was. She had even sent a good friend through some suffering like Bella and it was only luck, that he, like her brother, had imprinted on one of her sisters in law.  
Right now, near the time to give birth, she was stuck to the bloodsuckers' big house, while her husband and pack brothers were on patrol around in the woods. As a precaution she had moved in with the leeches to have the vamp doctor at hand, when something unforeseen should turn out.  
But how did it happen that she was in this situation?

...~~~~****~~~~...

The battle was over.

Could one name it even a battle?

After all, they hadn't to fight physically. In the end it came down to a verbal combat. The three old leeches with their black robes, in which they looked like oversized bats, chickened out. They gave in and left the clearing with their appendage like the cowards they were.

It took their party a moment to figure, but then she heard the cheers from all the bloodsuckers around and the howls of her brothers and she joined in. Only the two Draculas from Romania, which had speculated for a fight, and the Denali coven, which had so suddenly lost a sister, didn't rejoice like the rest of the group.

She didn't feel like celebrating either, but she also didn't want to diminish the joy of her pack brothers with her own moroseness.

"_Hey, Jake, am I allowed to leave and deliver the good news to my mom and the other elders? I'm not in the mood to hang out longer than necessary with all the_ good _bloodsuckers around. Maybe I can stay for the night at home and come tomorrow, to fulfill my duties, since, hopefully, I'm no longer subordinated to Sam,"_ she asked her Alpha of four months for permission to leave.

His answer came prompt. _"Yeah, Leah, but make sure, you're at the Cullen-house early in the morning. I don't trust those spineless Italian leeches an inch, so we don't cease the patrols. Quil and Embry will take the night-shift, but you and Seth have to assume in the morning."_

With one last glance over the clearing she turned to leave towards the rez. From the corner of her eye she saw the attractive newcomer, whose story had saved them from the physical fight. He had watched the wolves with rapt attention since he'd stepped onto the place and she had ogled him secretly too. He sure was a view to behold, but she couldn't allow herself any frailties. She mustn't fall in love again, especially not with a half bloodsucker. She resisted the urge, to take a second look back and started to run.

Reaching La Push, she phased, dressed and went directly to her parents' house, where, as she knew, the elders waited in suspense for the result of these day's actions.

She hadn't much time to inform them about the events, when Sam and Emily arrived, to talk about and analyze the whole concourse. Her presence was promptly forgotten. Once again she felt superfluous and unwanted and went to her room, after she shortly wished her mom and all others a good night.

She lay in bed and sleep evaded her. Damned! She wanted badly to forget for some time, but her thoughts wandered to long forgotten times; her childhood in the rez.

When she was a small girl of eight or nine she'd often sought the company of the Black twins, but Rachel and Rebecca were an entity; they'd lived in their own twin world and had no eyes for others besides themselves. They'd only noticed her, when they'd needed someone to look after their little brother and, at some times in summer, the girl tagging along behind them. So she'd played the nanny for little Jacob, Bella and her own tiny brother Seth. They'd strolled along First Beach, playing with the things they found there, but she never could form a real closeness with the younger ones. Especially Bella was truly strange and also very clumsy; every time they'd met she had to overcome her dislike.

Only from afar she'd watched the other kids around the beach and the rez, she hadn't dared to search friendship among them, from fear to be rejected again. Thus she'd more and more become a loner; the children in the reservation had considered her as an outsider. Her only friend then was her cousin, Emily. But Emily had lived at the Makah reservation and they'd met rarely. When they'd met, though, they'd been like birds of a feather, more sisters than cousins.

When Bella had refused to come back to Forks for summer, her nanny duties weren't required anymore. The boys were old enough to go on their own paths with their own friends. She'd felt even lonelier than before.

The start of her freshman year in high school, had initiated better times for her. Her body had changed over the summer, breasts and hips had become well-defined, which had confused her at first, but then made her much more self-confident. She'd caught the attention of Sam Uley, the good-looking sophomore; he'd had only eyes for her. It had appeared like love at first sight for both of them then and they'd started dating; in the early days secretly, later openly. It was the first time in her life she'd felt quite happy and desired, although her parents didn't wholly approve. They'd warned her, not to be too serious about their relationship. And they were right! Man, were they right.

Four years! She'd given him four years of her life, her honest feelings and her virginity. As long as it had lasted it was like heaven on earth for her, but after he'd graduated from school, he'd altered extremely. She hadn't known the connection then, but it was a year after the Cullen family moved to Forks.

At the beginning, he'd suddenly disappeared. She was worried and frantic with fear, because she'd thought he lay injured in the woods around La Push. To no avail she'd recruited her whole family for the search for him. They'd never found a trace of him.

Two weeks later he'd emerged back as suddenly as he had vanished. She'd never heard a word of explanation or an apology from him, but she'd stood by him in spite of the rumors about his maybe drug misuse and the secrets he'd kept from her. Their relationship had had the first cracks, though.

It had gone completely down the drain, when Emily had come to a visit on her graduation day. Her cousin had seen Sam on some occasions before and thought he was a nice guy, but both had never shown any interest on each other aside from a vague kindliness. On this day, however, as soon as Sam had looked Emily in the eyes, he was obsessed with the girl. She'd felt forgotten, superfluous and unwanted. The man she had trusted most in her life, even more than her parents, had left her high and dry, to pant after her own cousin. Her despair then had no limits. She'd cried for nights on end, but by daylight and in front of others she was hard as a stone. She'd shown no weakness and turned bit by bit into a bitter harpy.

Emily had turned Sam down again and again, her cousin knew how hurt she was, but Sam was adamant, he'd never given up. Then, one day, Emily was attacked by a bear. The beast had blemished the entire right side of the upper part of the girl's body. Especially the face was very badly scarred. Selfish as she was, she'd hoped Sam would now turn away from her cousin, yet the total opposite had happened; Sam was still as smitten as from the begin, but this time Emily had given in. Soon they were the dream couple of the elders and the whole tribe and she was the outcast once more.

She was so absorbed in her own desolation; she hadn't noted the drama around Bella, who had moved back to Forks. But this tragedy was the trigger for the worst day of her whole life. It was the pinnacle of her misery; the day she had phased into a wolf, the only female wolf in the tribe's history, the day her father had died.

In retrospect she knew it was because of the redheaded vampire woman, who stalked the wretched, leech loving Bella.

She had felt her body heat rising for some days and she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown in front of her whole family. And then her mother had told her, that Emily had moved into Sam's house. This was it. She'd burst out of her skin. In the truest sense of the word.

Suddenly she was on all fours; covered in fur, she'd stared at her family, to see how Seth had followed her suit. He'd changed into a sandy colored giant wolf and out of the blue she could read his puzzled thoughts and had seen herself through his eyes as an equally huge wolf with grey fur. To top the confusion she'd heard a lot of other voices in her head, which tried to reassure herself and her brother. To her dismay the most moderate voice in her head was the voice of her ex-lover Sam.

Chaos had broken loose in the backyard of her family's house, but she couldn't help it then; she had to calm down with this voices in her head. The tranquility, washing through her body, had helped her, but it also had let her be aware of her surroundings again. So she was able to see her father turn blue and collapse in her mother's arms. She'd bridled up and emitted a ferocious howl in which her brother had joined in.

The next hours were filled with hectic activity. Sam and the pack had arrived only minutes before the ambulance and her father's friend, Charlie Swan, Bella's father and chief of police in Forks. She and her brother were swiftly escorted to the woods, before the paramedics and Charlie could detect them. In the forest Jared and Embry, two of the other wolves, had taken over the task of explaining the essentials of the tribe's wolf legend and consoling and soothing them, to enable them to phase back into human form, whereas Sam had accompanied her mother into the hospital and Jacob had searched for the disaster-prone Bella, who was roaming the rez on her own.

When Sam and her mom had come back with the awful news of her father's dead, she and Seth were already in their human forms. It had taken all her strength, to stay human, but she'd managed it. The last year of emotional pain had taught her well. She was capable of helping Seth over the loss of his dad, even if she was hurt as much as the rest of her family. She had worn her tough- and bitterness like an armor to protect herself from the blows that struck from all sides.

Being in the pack, she'd learned all about imprinting and could now understand Sam's behavior. As ever she'd put on a brave face, but it hadn't helped her to conceal her bitter thoughts, when she was in wolf form. Her dreariness and cynical thoughts had made her pack brothers gloomy, too. It got even worse, when her menstruation had gone into hiatus and she'd thought she'd reached the menopause. She'd felt barren and useless, so she'd tried to compensate this with being competitive.

Bella's actions on this wicked day of fate had resulted in the return of the Cullens. She'd thrown all her sour feelings of loss and betrayal into the hate for the bloodsuckers and their human accessory. But this had done her no good, since they had to fight side by side with them against an army of newborn vampires. Yet again because of Bella. This stupid girl had hurt Jacob repeatedly with her love for the mind-reading leech and implicated them all in dangerous situations over and over.

Bella's marriage to Edward Cullen and the following pregnancy had disturbed the fragile bound between the Cullen coven and the wolf pack greatly. This had had far-reaching consequences; Jacob had gone to protect the bloodsuckers and, in the process, assembled his own pack, when she and her brother had joined him. It wasn't the best option for her life then, but it was better than to play the pathetic ex-girlfriend in the La Push pack. She'd nurtured the secret wish she could have a relationship with Jacob, but his imprint on the monster-baby, Bella and Edward had begotten, thwarted this hope. The only saving feature of this was, that it built a new firm alliance between the vampires and the wolves.

For a short time the tragic fate of Bella had seemed staved off, when the young woman gave birth and in the wake was turned into a vampire.

Embry and Quil, Jacob's best friends, had joined their pack in these times. Embry had showed some interest on her, but she hadn't wanted to get involved in love again and get pushed away, when he imprinted. And she still hoped for her own imprint against all odds. So they'd only shared some passionate kisses and before it could go much farther she'd broken it up, leaving Embry slightly dejected, but not heartbroken.

Her look back into the past had finally made her tired and when her eyelids drooped, she didn't fight the sleep. It brought her oblivion, after all. She sank into a fitful slumber.

_She looked into a pair of unfamiliar warm and dark-brown eyes and felt an unknown warmth wash through her body. All connections to her former life were torn and she was only drawn to the owner of this dark, almost black, eyes. He was the new focus of her existence. She had imprinted!_

_She blinked once and when she could see again, the pair of eyes was gone. She felt the loss immediately. Leaving her clothes on the bank of the river, where she'd discarded them earlier, she phased, to search for the man. Where could he have gone?_

_She ran through ferns and moss covered tree trunks, through trees and rocks. The vegetation around the Cullen house was thick and, for humans, nearly impermeable, but she was a wolf; surely she could find a human being in this foliage. She grew increasingly desperate with every minute she searched without result. When she realized, that she would never find him, she sat down on her hind legs, threw her head back and let out a loud, hopeless howl._

With a jerk she woke up. Her own cry had pulled her from her nap. This damned confusing dream she'd dreamt for weeks on end. Since the day Alice had the vision of yesterday's encounter, she'd dreamt it every time she fell asleep. She didn't know what to think of it.

It was still deep in the night, but she knew she couldn't find back into sleep, so she went to the Cullen house, to possibly take over duties early.

On her way through the forest, she changed her mind. She went towards the chalets, courtesy of vampire mother hen Esme Cullen, how Jake had titled the matriarch of the bloodsuckers, erected on the other side of the river behind the Cullen mansion. There was a small luxurious equipped house for every wolf of Jacob's pack.

At first she had refused to make use of hers, but soon enough she'd softened. It was too pleasant, to have a warm shower and a clean and comfortable bed after a long shift of ranging through underbrush and rocks. The nasty sweet vampire scent had dwindle fast and she'd enjoyed, to have some clandestine girl time to herself, with neat dresses, nice shoes and make-up.

She decided that in this early morning hours, she would have the benefit of her quarters; going first for a swim in the river and taking a hot shower later, before her shift began.

The riverside was slippery, but she managed to climb in without a slip. Here clothing lay neatly folded over a rock on the shore. She plunged into the water, swimming with space-consuming arm strokes to the middle, where she rolled on her back and floated with the current. Near the Cullen house was an oxbow, where she would turn around. The sky overhead got brighter with every moment. Dawn was near.

When she reached the bow of the river, she flipped over on her belly to swim back. But before she even could start her swimming strokes, she caught a movement in the shrubbery. A man with rich brown skin lurked through the leaves of a tree, eyes fixed on her. Angered by the Peeping Tom, which she recognized as Nahuel, the half breed from the Amazon, she made a rude gesture in his direction and flashed her grim eyes at him, only to get lost in his warm, teak colored ones.

A wave of warm feelings surged through her body. The focus of her existence shifted. The love to her family and her pack brothers faded into the background, the pain over the loss of her father and Sam's betrayal subsided and she felt only an overwhelming love for the man on the riverbank. Her weird dream had come true; she'd actually imprinted ─ on a half vampire of all people. How ironically, since she had hated the bloodsuckers so much. But who could oppose fate?

Her eyes lost the harsh expression. The stranger, though, couldn't see it. He had turned around and was walking to the Cullen's dwelling, head and shoulders hanging as if defeated, evidently feeling repelled by her fierce reaction. She could kick herself. The urge to follow and protect her imprint assaulted her, but she suppressed it, not knowing how his feelings were. She couldn't take rejection anymore.

With a gloomy frame of mind she swam back. Her plans forgotten, she tied her shirt and pants to her hind leg, phased and went to the site where the change of shifts should take place. She tried to not show the reason of her bad mood, but especially Jacob could tell there was something cooking. He caught it, when her mind, however short, wandered to the incident by the rivers oxbow, but he never confronted her with his knowledge.

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The next few days were like hell for her. The pull to the Cullen's domicile, where her imprint still lived, increased with every hour, but she didn't dare to go for him, as she feared his repulse. She had to fight her feelings and to avoid her pack brothers, to not unveil her secret.

But her Alpha had already plotted with Edward the mind reader, to help her out of her misery.

On her next day off she had visitors. Jake came over and he brought ─ Nahuel. Beautiful, chocolate-colored and slender Nahuel. She felt a jolt going through her heart.

To her surprise they got easily into a chat, even if they shunned speaking about the occurrence by the river. Sitting around her table, their talk revolved around the tribe's legends and she and Nahuel held the majority of the conversation. They were just captivated by the story about the wolves, when Jacob suddenly jumped up. He stated that he had forgotten about his father's appointment with the physiotherapist and had to hurry to drive him to the meeting.

Jake dashed off and she was alone with Nahuel. In the haste of her Alpha's departure, she hadn't noticed it, but the man she so desired was already standing at the door, apparently ready to flee. She couldn't let him go; she had to find out what feelings he had for her.

"Please, don't go," she begged. "Let's just talk a little more."

Nahuel turned around and sat back on his chair. He didn't answer right away, so she peeked at his face and instantly was all but hypnotized with the intensity of the gaze she caught. When she finally managed to look away, she tried to give him an alluring smile. But instead of smiling back, Nahuel's eyes grew first wide and then darted to the floor.

This was odd. During the conversation they had before Jake ran away, they had often exchanged glances and smiles without this strange behavior. To get time to consider, what his problem was, she stood up and asked if he wanted something to drink.

"Oh ... um ... yes, can you get me a Coke if you have, I like this American drink very much," Nahuel answered in his slightly foreign accent.

While she browsed her fridge, she thought about Nahuel's intense stare and then his evasion of her eyes; she came to the conclusion that he seemed almost shy. To verify her observation, she turned around and caught him looking at her. He swallowed audibly and tried to avoid her eyes again, when he realized that she'd seen him staring, but she didn't put up with it. She held his gaze and felt how the atmosphere tensed. Smiling she broke the eye contact and gave him some time to recover.

Yeah, now she had the proof, Nahuel was shy. He had stuttered a bit, when he had answered her question and he'd gotten even more nervous when she caught him ogle her. And, yes, it looked as if he was in fact interested in her. She knew, because of his shyness, she had to take the initiative, but could she trust him? She had to! This was her only chance to find her happiness, she mustn't be pessimistic.

She set the glass of Coke on the table and sat down opposite of him. "Nahuel," she began, enjoying it to speak his name aloud. "I think you feel the connection between us, too. Am I right?"

"Y ... y ... yes!" he stumbled over his answer. "When I saw you in the river, I couldn't avert my eyes from you. So ... please, forgive my staring. I didn't want to make you uncomfortable then."

"Yeah, for a moment I was really furious with you. Do you do such things often in your home country? Stalking girls like this and then turn your back at them?" She demanded in the hope he would expose a little more of his past.

Nahuel's eyes widened at her accusation and he hastened to answer: "No, no, no, you judge me wrong, Leah." Her name sounded special, when he used it, but she hadn't time to savor this, since he spouted off: "I never ever was involved with women in my whole life ... I think you heard the story of my life, so where should I have found a woman to care for? And I never missed anything in this regard, but then I spotted you and you looked so ... err ... yes ... um ... I ... I ... I immediately knew you were the one for me. Do you want ...," he gulped heavy, as if to encourage himself and continued hurriedly: "Do-you-want-to-be-my-girlfriend?"

What? What had he said at the end? It came out in such a rush, but she still had understood the meaning of it. Her brain did back flips. He never had a woman before! And he really wanted to be with her. Now she could tell him about the imprint and she hadn't to fear a negative response.

"You know what, Nahuel? ... Yes! ... Yes, I want to be your girlfriend. ... But I have to tell you something before we could go any further."

His eyes, which had showed relief, when he had heard her 'Yes!' were suddenly vulnerable and fearful. She had to grin internally.

"Oh, don't panic!" she reassured him, "It's nothing bad. You remember when we talked about imprinting?" His short nod invited her to go on. "So, when I looked in your eyes, down at the river, I imprinted on you. I'm yours! I love you! Forever! ... There, I said it. I hope you can handle eternity."

She hadn't had to dread his reaction over her revelation. His whole face began to glow and all of sudden she was in his arms. He kissed her fervently, so she didn't hold back either. "Eternity it shall be then, my love!" he whispered into her hair, when they stopped kissing to catch their breath.

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_AN:_

_This time I knew exactly what I wanted to write. That Leah could imprint on Nahuel was in my mind for a long time. It seemed so logical for me, since according to Carlisle, the hybrids and the wolves had probably the same number of genes and they are similar in some other parts, like the body heat.  
Well, when I began to write, I knew exactly where the story should go, but I couldn't pull it off. I couldn't picture Leah right. It made me want to tear my hair out, but I couldn't get to the girl's mind. So I went with letting her show my way to deal with my feelings of loss, when my dad died. I think, though, that's not the right view of what makes Leah tick.  
And then I read the first two entries of the contest, and knew immediately, that I never ever could rival with the masters here and almost let it be. :-)  
But then again, I wanted Leah to have her happily ever after with Nahuel, so after a while I caught myself thinking out scenes of the story and went back to writing, only then the time to write was cut short.  
I edited the part of the story I wrote so far (because it was another POV) and continued it to the point where it is currently.  
When I began to write I wanted to insert some Nahuel's POV (which I already have written) and a nice lemon, but I hadn't enough time. So, perhaps I rework the whole thing sometime and write it in a new form. :-)_

_Oh, well, I forgot; I had no time to let the story beta, I hope it hasn't too much twisted 'German' sentences and wrongly applied phrases and synonyms._

_Yours  
__**Renata**_


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